I think the argument here with the cash shop should be more focused on setting prices at such a ridiculous level, rather than trying to argue the P2Win debate that draws more trolls than people who are willing to have a conversation on the matter. This cash shop mentality is a growing trend with developers that use a gamer's own habits against them. I don't like how developers now are making predatory moves to capitalize on this collector mentality. Yes, there's some wiggle room for some of this vanity item cash shop stuff, but trying to take this much money from gamers is disrespectful. It's even worse when you have companies like arena net putting such items in a gambling container. Come right down to it, if a developer respected its community, it would make all items like these reasonably priced and make alternatives available in-game as well. It is driving an artificial wedge between players where there really needn't be one.

I also like that they have deleted a thread where we were talking about the bigger issue of the cartel market in a critical way. It's frustrating to have laid out a sound and reasonably toned argument, just to have them delete it and pretend the problem doesn't exist. There needs to be more talk on these forums, in my opinion, on what price is acceptable and what isn't. Charging $18.00 for a character bound mount is a big stretch. It shows me that the company cares more about separating players by virtue of their line of credit than actual fostering a happy game environment for everyone. No matter the triviality of such an item, players play for different reasons and prefer different content.

The ultimate humor in all of this is the fact that you have to pay extra for something that is advertised at the character creation screen. We, as a community, need to have an open conversation on how costly these items really need to be. Another part of this is that they advertise that by being a subscriber to the game, you'd never have to pay extra for a particular cartel market item you wanted, and could just wait it out until you had the points. Yes, that sounds great and all, but most items worth getting are hidden behind the sneaky "limited time only" moniker, and I see it as another cheap way to force money out of someone who is already paying into the game.

In my humble opinion, asking 1800 CC for a non account-wide speeder is getting rather ridiculous. If this is going to be a monthly thing from now on, it'd be nice to have some warning now before I even begin to think about making collector purchases that I will never be able to keep up with. I like the work being put into these items, and they do have good quality, but a company should down right feel terrible for asking $18.00 for a single character unlocked mount. I get that the purpose is to make money here, but wouldn't you benefit more from placing player amusement before pure profit? I don't like this new sole focus on one-off transactions that SWTOR and GW2 are now infatuated with. To me, these are predatory moves to take advantage of the gamer's collector mentality wrapped up in a silver bow made to look like new content. We, as a community, need to find a better balance between supporting a company through micro-transactions and the money grabbing that takes the player out of the fun, and instead forces them into worrying over the next new toy.

I don't like this direction at all. I don't mind paying for cosmetic items and speeders, but this price setting is terrible. $18.00 for a non-account wide speeder? What kind of money grab mentality thought adding one of these gems to the market every month was a good idea? SWTOR and GW2 are both going down a slippery slope in this regard, and I feel as though these are predatory moves to take advantage of the collector mentality. I would understand if the price wasn't so unimaginably high. All speeders from the cartel market should be account wide at this price. This should also be a retroactive fix including the czerka celebrator as well.

If you want death to be something that you have to overcome and be always on the lookout for, I'd suggest playing on one of the PvP servers.

Haha, reminds me of that austin powers skit.

"We don't want to show favoritism with any Holiday Themed Events, so we won't be having them." Sounds like a good excuse not to add anything cool to me. I'm sure the Star Wars universe has enough substance to warrant some type of event around the major american holidays. Other MMOs have events, and I don't see their headquarters being raided by some freakish politically correct police.

I imagine server structure engineers solving problems by donning a tron suit and killing faulty programs with their light cycles.

Automatic Windows Updates are the devil.

Congress works this way, but I see your point. In this specific case, I believe they should have held their ground and firmly state that DDE owners would be getting 500 cartel points or similar.

I miss Dallas Dickinson's awesome beard.

That's the necessary evil of being a PR person. Someone tells you to give information without really saying anything. The explosive masses yell at the messenger for their lack of definition (intentional) and nothing comes from it. If nothing at all was said, they'd be screaming communication too. Can't win. Hopefully people will be content that "something" is coming their way.

EA has yet to close the doors on Bioware Mythic and Warhammer Online, so I respectfully inform you that your argument is invalid.

Everyone keeps using that word, "item." The whole point in clarifying her sentence was to assert that this "something" might really just be some extra cartel coins and not an actual item.